


A More Distant Place

by orphan_account



Category: due South
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:19:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria thinks about being Jane.  Sequel to "With a New Person in a Distant City."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A More Distant Place

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [With a New Person in a Distant City](https://archiveofourown.org/works/675299) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



So Ray Kowalski walked into my bar. Well, more like got seated in my section. I didn’t recognize him at first, though he did seem familiar. When he gave me his name, though, I recognized it from the stories about him and Ben and the submarine.

I decided to take him up on his proposition. He turned out to be a pretty good guy, better than a lot of one night stands. I tried to get him to talk about Ben, but he wouldn’t. And when it was over, I wasn’t surprised that I never heard from again. I’m pretty sure he didn’t know who I was. Why would he? I was from before his time.

And I was actually kind of glad he didn’t recognize me. Maybe Ben didn’t have some kind of scrapbook, physical or mental. Maybe Ray Kowalski had never heard about that awful bitch Victoria Metcalf. Maybe Ben got over her. Over me.

Now I’m Jane Randall. I ended up in San Antonio rather than Austin, still warm enough, and I lead a quiet life as a waitress. I like the work. I like being in a revolving restaurant hundreds of feet above street level. Just being up there is nearly hypnotic, but not mindlessly so. It’s the way the view is basically the same, but still different every time. And I’m above it all.

I used to wonder, all the time, what would have happened if Ben had joined me on that train. Would he have completely flipped his switch for me, applied all that intelligence, charm and drive to criminal activity? Would we have fed on each other until there was nothing left of either of us, or would I have become hard working, productive Jane Randall that much sooner? Would he have come up with some complicated scheme to rescue Ray Vecchio from what I’d tried to do to him? I kept track of the news and knew that not only did Vecchio get cleared, but that he and Fraser got a lot done for another year...after I left.

Then the stories dried up until the submarine thing. I still don’t know what happened there. I did see a marriage announcement for Vecchio. Apparently he married Kowalski’s ex-wife. Chicago must be a pretty small town.

As for me? I originally started waitressing at street level as a way to case a bank. Then I discovered that I actually liked being a waitress. So I followed through on that, and now I’m working in a place where the tips are amazing, so I make a comfortable, perfectly legitimate living in a place that’s warm.

I’d like Ben to know that I’ve gone straight. I’d like him to know that a part of me still loves him. But if he has forgotten me, or moved on, I don’t want to fuck that up for him. Because Benton Fraser being my biggest regret is the penance I have to pay for what I’ve done. 

It’s a steep price, but I can live with it. Better than how I'd feel if I'd dragged him down to where I was a few years ago.


End file.
